


The Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place

by emungere



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 09:40:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1464643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emungere/pseuds/emungere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will gets to know Matthew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Rock Cried Out No Hiding Place

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [И камни возопят, не укрыться](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8306731) by [pen_pusher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pen_pusher/pseuds/pen_pusher)



> Thanks very much to Chrissy for betaing even though Hannibal creeps her out. <3

Will held the straitjacket in his hands. "How does this work?" he asked. 

"Same as the cuffs, Mr. Graham. Just get your arms in the sleeves and back up to the bars. I'll do the rest." 

Will slid himself into it, worked it up to his shoulders, and came to stand by the bars. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He felt the tug as the orderly closed the jacket at the back and then caught the sleeves and buckled them into place behind him. Another buckle at the neck. Two straps came up between his legs to be fixed in place. 

"All right?" the orderly said. "It shouldn't be uncomfortable." 

"How would you know?" 

"They make you do it in training. I thought it might be scary, but it was just tight. Like being held." 

Will tried to keep that in mind on the long ride to the courthouse, strapped immobile and choking on his own hot breath behind the mask. Not trapped. Just held. Sometimes it helped. 

*

An orange sat on his dinner tray, rocking side to side next to the mashed potatoes. It looked as out of place as a Happy Meal might in Hannibal's dining room. A glance at the cart confirmed that he was the only one getting anything tonight that hadn't come out of a box or a can. 

"Hey," Will said. He waited for the orderly to turn back toward him. "Don't do this if you're going to get in trouble." 

He ducked his head and gave Will a quick smile. "I won't get in trouble, Mr. Graham. Don't you worry about me." 

*

When the inside of Will's head began to consume him, he did push-ups. When he couldn't do any more, he lay face down on the floor of his cell and drew in deep breaths against the stained concrete. Sweat dripped from his hair down the back of his neck. No shower until tomorrow. 

A damp towel landed next to him. His orderly watched him through the bars. "You should try it one-handed," he said. "You know. Take it to the next level." 

Will picked up the towel and wiped down his face and neck as he stood. "What's your name?"

"Matthew Brown." 

"You go out of your way for me, Matthew Brown." 

Brown shrugged one shoulder. "Not that far." 

Far enough, Will thought. His mind presented him with easily a dozen scenes from the past few months, this man's careful hands on him and careful eyes watching him. 

Will pushed down the top of the jumpsuit and peeled off his t-shirt. Brown's eyes stayed on him, not so careful now, though he'd seen Will in the shower often enough to have him memorized. He dragged the towel across the overheated skin of his chest and stomach. Brown swallowed. 

The scaly metal of the bars pressed into Will's shoulder as he stretched his arm between them to pass the towel back. "Thanks," he said. 

"Any time, Mr. Graham." 

*

Brown passed Will his breakfast tray with hands gone red and purple at the knuckles. Will looked up and saw the black eye that had taken over half his face. 

"What happened to you?" 

"Just a fight. Nothing big." 

Will nodded at his bruised face. "Looks big." 

Brown gave him a crooked smile. "That's not big. The one on my side, that's pretty big I guess." 

Down the hall, Kane started shouting about the hold up on breakfast. Will pulled his tray in through the slot, and Brown continued down the line of cells. 

*

Brown walked Will down to the showers in the basement. Few of the patients could be trusted in company, and so they showered one at a time in a space big enough to hold twenty. Will stepped through the wire mesh door and started to undress. 

Brown sank down stiffly onto a folding chair. The deep purple around his left eye had soured to green and yellow. 

"How big is it?" Will said. 

Brown looked up from the ground, where he tended to fix his gaze while Will stripped. "Huh?" 

"The one on your side." 

"Oh." His hand curled into the hem of his shirt. "You want to see?" 

"Sure." 

He pulled it up. The bruise started near the top of his ribcage and stretched nearly to his hip. Its outer reaches were healing, but the center was still a deep purple-red with the suggestion of a pattern. Boot treads, Will thought. 

"You should have someone look at that." 

"You're looking at it." 

"Someone with medical training."

"It's not that bad." 

"You're moving like you cracked a rib." 

"I'll go to the doc this weekend if it's still bad."

"Go when you get off work." 

Brown smiled at him. "Okay, Mr. Graham. If you're gonna get bossy about it. You want the water now?" 

"Yeah." 

The controls were on the far side of grating to keep patients from scalding themselves. Some of the orderlies would turn it on cold and let them suffer. Brown got the perfect temperature every time. 

*

The scream of an alarm woke Will from a dead sleep into darkness lit only by the emergency floods at the far end of the hall. He heard shouting from the guards, from his neighbors, and finally a shrill whistle. 

"It's just a test!" one of the guards shouted. "Everybody go the fuck back to sleep." 

The lights in the hall flickered back on and then cut out to their usual night time setting, one lit for every three unlit. 

"Sure it's fucking a test," Kane called. "No better time to test security than ass o'clock in the morning, right?" 

But there was nothing else to do, and everyone but Horst settled down eventually. Horst rocked back and forth in his cell and sang lullabies under his breath. He'd strangled seven children before he was caught, and one unlucky guard since. Will listened to his whispered rendition of _Mama's Gonna Buy You a Mocking Bird_ over and over and failed to go back to sleep. 

A few hours later, Brown came down the hall with the breakfast trays. 

"Did something happen?" Will asked. 

"Some kind of software upgrade for the security system. I guess it had a bug. Dr. Chilton was pretty mad. They called him at home, and he's been yelling at people since he got here." 

"Good to know his beauty sleep got interrupted too. Did you get your ribs checked out?" 

Brown pulled up the corner of his uniform shirt. "You were right. One cracked. Got it taped up now, see?" 

"Good." 

Brown moved on, and Will picked at his breakfast. He heard the slide of two more trays through slots, and then the blare of an alarm again--and the electric buzz of unlocking doors. His own door swung open an inch. Across the hall, so did Horst's. 

Will set his tray aside and stepped up the bars. A few feet down the hall, he could see Brown, frozen as the inmates were frozen, as the guards were frozen at the far end. 

"Fuck," someone said, and that was all it took to set the scene in motion. 

Horst lumbered out of his cell on one side of Brown, and Kane nearly skipped out on the other. Kane had started the fad for urinating on visiting therapists, but he'd do worse given the opportunity. Brown grabbed an empty tray like he thought he was going to fight them off. 

"Hey," Will called. Brown turned to him. He held the door to his cell open. "Get in here." 

Brown hesitated for half a second, but when he moved, he moved fast. Will grabbed the tray from him once he was inside and wedged it under the door. It wouldn't keep out a determined assault, but Kane and Horst were already sizing each other up. 

Brown had a hand pressed to his side. He sat on the edge of Will's cot. "Thanks, Mr. Graham," he said. 

"You're not afraid I'll be worse than them?" 

"I'm not afraid of you."

Will sat down next to him, and he didn't move away. Their knees touched. It was the first casual, unguarded contact Will had known since his arrest. 

Out in the hall, Horst and Kane laid into each other. The guards were shouting for someone to get the door open, get the fucking door open. 

"Was it someone here who hurt you?" Will asked. 

"Why would you say that?" 

"The tread pattern in the bruising. Looks like those shit kickers Daley wears." 

"You don't miss much, huh, Mr. Graham?"

"I don't have a lot of distractions." Will stood. "I didn't notice Daley at work this week." 

Horst had Kane down on the floor. The guards were working on the manual override for the security door, but they weren't going to be in time. Will walked over to lean against the bars. 

"Hey, Bobby," he said softly. 

Horst swung his big head slowly around. He loomed over Kane, hand stretched most of the way around his neck. 

"That was a nice song you were singing earlier," Will said. "You sing them to sleep, right?"

"They have to be quiet," Horst said. "You don't know who'll hear if they're not quiet." 

"He'll be quiet if you sing to him." 

Kane was already quiet, limp as Horst lifted him up against his chest. It took both hands, so he had to let go of his throat. Will could see the rise and fall of Kane's breathing. Unconscious, but alive. Horst rocked him in time to the song. 

"How did you know what to say to him?" Brown asked. 

"The same way I know what to say to you." 

"I guess Daley had to go see the doc before I did. I guess he's still there." 

"You put him in the hospital." 

"He wouldn't shut up." 

"What did he say?"

"Stuff about you. About how I look at you."

"How do you look at me, Matthew?"

"Not like that. I wouldn't ever do anything you didn't want. He shouldn't have said what he said." 

Will sat back down next him. "No. I guess he shouldn't have." 

*

Brown was in the same secure medical facility where they'd kept Will before transferring him to Chilton's domain. He hadn't said a word about Will, about his motives for the attack on Hannibal, or, according to Jack, about anything else. 

When Will was released, he took two days to settle in at home and then went to visit him.

"No restraints," Will said, as he walked in. "You must've been a good boy." 

"Causing trouble never does you any good in a place like this." 

Will tossed him an orange and pulled a chair up closer to the bed. "No, it doesn't. I'm sorry to see you here, Matthew." 

Brown shrugged and started peeling his orange. "Everyone's got problems, Mr. Graham. It's nice of you to come visit me. You're not gonna get in trouble, are you?" 

"I won't get in trouble, Matthew. Don't you worry. We're both going to be just fine."

**Author's Note:**

> [emungere.tumblr.com](http://emungere.tumblr.com/)


End file.
